> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Top Products by Revenue, BigCommerce > Top Products by Revenue for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > The top-N products by revenue over the period. The merchandising answer to "where does the money come from?" at the SKU level. **Rankings shift week-to-week** for low-volume stores (any store with \<500 orders/month should read on 30D+ windows for stability), and the ordering is sensitive to whether you measure by revenue, units, or order count. This card defaults to revenue ranking; toggle to units or count for different lenses. Pair with [BC Bottom Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/slow-moving-products) to see the full distribution and identify SKUs to delist. | | | | ------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `SUM(line_total_inc_tax) GROUP BY product_id` over the period. Each line item attributes to its parent product (variants roll up). Top 25 by default; toggle for top 50, 100, or full list. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | **Tax-inclusive** at the line-item level. Per the [BC Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) treatment. | | **Shipping** | Pro-rated shipping per line item (line\_subtotal / order\_subtotal \* order\_shipping). Approximation breaks for orders with item-specific shipping rates. | | **Discounts** | **Deducted** at the line-item level for item-specific discounts; order-level discounts pro-rated across items. | | **Refunds** | **Not deducted** by default. Top products show gross revenue. Toggle to "net" to see refund-adjusted (useful for finding products with high return rates). | | **Cancelled orders** | Excluded. | | **`Incomplete` orders** | Excluded. | | **Currency** | Multi-currency without FX; per-currency aggregation, with the dominant currency featured. | | **Channels / sources** | All channels aggregate by default; per-channel toggle reveals different top-N lists. **A SKU that's #1 on web may not be on Amazon at all** because of channel-specific listing strategies. | | **Variant rollup** | Default rolls variants to parent product. So "T-shirt" sums all sizes / colours into one row. Toggle to "show variants separately" for SKU-level granularity. | | **Sample size warning** | Below 500 orders, ranking is sensitive to single-customer purchases; one bulk order from a big customer can put a B2B-only SKU into the top 10. Use 90D windows for stable strategic ranking. | | **B2B Edition behaviour** | B2B orders contribute large line-totals on bulk SKUs (often 50-1000 units per order). B2B-only SKUs can dominate the top-N in revenue terms while contributing tiny units of *customer* count. **Filter to DTC if you want consumer-facing top products**; aggregated views mix the two. | | **Time window** | `30D` (rolling 30 days; settings allow 7D, 30D, 90D, 180D). | | **Alert trigger** | None directly; threshold alerts can fire if a top-5 product drops out of the top 10 (suggesting a stockout, listing issue, or competitor action). | | **Roles** | owner, marketing | ## Calculation ``` GROUP BY consignments.shipping.lineItems.name.keyword SUM(orderProduct.totalIncTax) WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A UK home-fragrance brand on BigCommerce, 30-day window 14 Apr 26 to 13 May 26. | Rank | Product | Units sold | Revenue (£) | Units share | Revenue share | | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ---------- | ------------ | ----------- | ------------- | | 1 | "Vetiver large candle" (CAN-LRG-VTL) | 856 | £42,800 | 7.3% | 18.4% | | 2 | "Wild rose diffuser 200ml" (DIF-200-WLD) | 568 | £28,400 | 4.8% | 12.2% | | 3 | "Oud medium candle" (CAN-MED-OUD) | 480 | £19,200 | 4.1% | 8.3% | | 4 | "Discovery gift set" (GFT-001) | 295 | £14,800 | 2.5% | 6.4% | | 5 | "Linen large candle" (CAN-LRG-LIN) | 246 | £12,300 | 2.1% | 5.3% | | 6 | "Sandalwood medium candle" (CAN-MED-SAN) | 220 | £11,000 | 1.9% | 4.7% | | 7 | "Refill candle, 4-pack" (CAN-RFL-4PK) | 158 | £9,500 | 1.4% | 4.1% | | 8 | "Vetiver diffuser 100ml" (DIF-100-VTL) | 195 | £8,800 | 1.7% | 3.8% | | 9 | "Travel candle, 3-pack" (CAN-TRV-3PK) | 142 | £8,500 | 1.2% | 3.7% | | 10 | "Reed refills, set of 8" (DIF-RFL-8) | 286 | £7,200 | 2.4% | 3.1% | | **Top 10 total** | | **3,446** | **£162,500** | **29.4%** | **70.0%** | What's interesting: 1. **Top 10 = 70% of revenue from 29% of unit volume.** Classic Pareto distribution: a third of units drive most of the revenue. This is healthy concentration; below 50% revenue share for top 10 means flat distribution (no flagships); above 80% means dangerous flagship dependency. 2. **The Vetiver large candle is the undisputed hero** at 18.4% of revenue. **A stockout on this single SKU costs \~£1,400/day**. Reorder triggers should be aggressive; warehouse floor space should be allocated. This is the SKU that the entire P\&L turns on; defend it. 3. **Refills (#7, #10) are stealth winners.** Refills (CAN-RFL-4PK and DIF-RFL-8) appear in the top 10 with high unit-volume but lower per-unit revenue. **These are subscription / retention indicators**: customers buying refills are bonded to the brand. Consider a subscribe-and-save program for refill SKUs. 4. **Gift set (#4) is the breakout.** £14,800 from 295 units = £50 average. Gift sets typically have 10-15% gross margin lower than singletons (curated bundle costs more to assemble) but generate 2-3x the customer-acquisition value (gift recipients become customers). **Expand the gift-set range and double-promo around Mother's Day, Christmas, Valentine's.** 5. **Three of top 10 are Vetiver-scented** (CAN-LRG-VTL, DIF-100-VTL, and the Vetiver-included gift set). Scent concentration: vetiver is the brand's signature note. **Lean into the brand identity**; develop more vetiver SKUs (small candle, room spray, body care extension). Action playbook this card surfaces: 1. **Defend top 5 inventory aggressively.** Reorder triggers at 30 days of cover, not 14. 2. **Identify hero scent / category.** If 3+ of top 10 share a theme, that's the brand identity; develop adjacencies. 3. **Promote refills heavily.** Refill customers are 2-3x more likely to repeat-purchase within 90 days; refill SKUs are LTV indicators. 4. **Audit the long tail (490 SKUs at 30% revenue share).** Most have \<5 units sold in 30 days; consider delisting or relaunching. 5. **Pair with [BC Bottom Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/slow-moving-products)** to find the worst SKUs (often candidates for delisting). 6. **Pair with [BC Top Refunded](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-refunding-customers)** to find SKUs with high refund rates relative to sales; quality issues hide here. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Top Products | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [BC Bottom Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/slow-moving-products) | The opposite tail. Often a bigger opportunity: which SKUs to delist or relaunch. | | [BC Top SKUs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus) | SKU-level (variant) view; this card rolls variants into parents. | | [BC Top SKUs by Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus-by-revenue) | Same idea, sorted by revenue rather than unit count. | | [BC Top Refunded](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-refunding-customers) | High-refund SKUs hide here; cross-reference to find quality issues. | | [BC Refunded Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/most-refunded-products) | Refund-rate per top product. | | [BC Revenue Breakdown](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-breakdown) | Composition view; this card is just the top tail of that. | | [BC Product Status](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/product-status) | Top products should always be active and visible; cross-check. | | [BC Inventory Alerts](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/products-with-zero-negative-stock) | Top products are the most stockout-sensitive. | | [BC Stock vs Sales](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/stock-vs-sales-velocity) | Days-of-cover for top products; the inventory-management view. | | [BC Top Customers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-customers) | Top products and top customers often correlate (specific high-value SKUs sold to specific high-value customers). | | [BC Product Margin](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/gross-margin) | Top revenue products may not be top margin products; pair to see profitability ranking. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Denominator. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce's own dashboard:** The native view is **BC Control Panel → Analytics → Insights → Top Products** (Plus and Enterprise tiers) or **Reports → Sales Reports → Sales by Product** (all tiers). Both expose top-N products with revenue and unit columns; match the date range for direct comparison. For finance-grade audit, **Settings → Data Solutions → Export → Orders** (with line-item detail) provides the underlying data for spreadsheet pivot. **Why our number may legitimately differ from the vendor's:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ----------------------- | ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Variant rollup** | Either | We default to parent-product rollup; BC Insights may show variants separately. Toggle either to match. | | **Time zone** | Boundary days off | UTC vs store time zone. | | **Bundle handling** | Either | BC counts bundle SKUs at parent revenue; line-item detail can show constituent SKUs. We follow BC's parent-attribution. | | **Discount pro-rating** | Either | Order-level discounts pro-rate differently in BC reports vs our index materialisation. ±0.5-2% per SKU normal. | | **Sync lag** | Ours lower for last 30 minutes | Webhook fanout. | | **Refund treatment** | Either | We default to gross (refunds not deducted); BC reports may show net. | | **Currency** | Either | We aggregate per-currency; BC may convert. | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when both connectors are connected for this merchant):** | Card | Expected relationship | Notes | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_analytics.ga_top_products`](/nerve-centre/google_analytics/ga_top_products) | Top-N list should overlap by \~80% | GA4 attributes by `purchase` event with item parameter; differs in the long tail. | | [`klaviyo.klaviyo_top_products`](/nerve-centre/klaviyo/klaviyo_top_products) | Email-attributed subset | Klaviyo only sees SKUs in email-driven purchases; long tail differs significantly. | ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) Top products is a universal commerce metric; definitional differences are minor across platforms. * [`shopify.top_products`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/top-products-by-revenue) * [`adobe_commerce.top_products`](/nerve-centre/adobe_commerce/top_products)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my top product ranking different week-to-week?** Sample-size effect. Below 500 orders/week, individual customer purchases dominate the ranking. Use 30D windows for stable strategic ranking; weekly views are for trend monitoring only. **My #1 product dropped to #5 this week, what should I check?** In order: (1) stockout (check inventory), (2) listing / image issue (check the product page), (3) pricing change (intentional or accidental), (4) competitor action, (5) sample-size noise (if below 500 weekly orders). Most "rank drops" on small windows are noise; on 30D+ windows they're signal. **Should I rank by revenue or by units?** Both, for different decisions. Revenue ranking surfaces highest-margin opportunities; unit ranking surfaces operational priorities (inventory, packaging, fulfilment workload). Toggle in card settings. **Why are my variants rolled up to parent products?** Default for readability. A T-shirt with 5 sizes appears as one row, not five. Toggle to "show variants separately" if you need SKU-level granularity (often needed for inventory decisions, less so for merchandising). **My gift bundle SKU is in the top 10 but the constituent items aren't, why?** Because BC attributes bundle revenue to the bundle SKU at the line-item level, not to constituent SKUs. The bundle is its own product in BC's catalog. **For constituent-SKU analysis, use Ask Viq with bundle-decomposition**: "show top SKUs including bundle constituents". **Why is my B2B portal showing weird top products?** B2B orders are bulk; one B2B customer ordering 500 units of a wholesale-only SKU puts that SKU at the top by units, while DTC customers might never see it. **Filter to web channel** for end-customer top products. **Can I see top products by margin?** Yes via Ask Viq: "top products by gross margin for last 30 days" if cost-of-goods data is populated. Margin ranking often differs from revenue ranking; high-revenue may be low-margin (heavy discounting). **Why does this card not include my POS-only SKUs?** It does, but POS revenue typically distributes across many SKUs evenly (no Pareto effect at the in-store level). POS-only SKUs rarely make the top 10 unless your store has very concentrated POS volume. **Should I read this card or [BC Top SKUs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus)?** This card for merchandising decisions (which products to promote, which to feature). [BC Top SKUs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-skus) for inventory-management decisions (which variants to reorder, which to discontinue). Different decision contexts. **My top product has a 15% refund rate, that's high, what should I do?** Investigate quality. A 15% refund rate on a top SKU represents the most fixable margin damage in the catalog. Pull customer feedback / refund reasons; common causes are size-fit (apparel), defect rate (electronics), expectation mismatch (descriptions don't match reality). **Can I export this list?** Yes via Ask Viq: "export top 50 products for last 30 days as CSV". Includes product\_id, name, units, revenue, refunded\_amount, refund\_rate, channel breakdown. **Does this include subscription SKUs?** Yes. Subscription SKUs typically have steady weekly cadence and rarely top the list unless the subscription base is very large. For subscription-specific top products, filter via Ask Viq. **My top products vs Insights Top Products differ by 2-3 SKUs, why?** Variant rollup, time zone, and refund treatment are the typical sources of small list differences. The top 5-10 should match; positions 11-25 can vary by 2-3 SKUs. **Should I worry about my top product ranking shifts during sale events?** No. Sale events distort short-window ranking; a heavily-discounted SKU jumps in units but drops in revenue (or vice versa). Use post-sale windows for stable ranking. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Top Products by Revenue* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.